Fallen Leaves

Yesterday, we went to our Pastor’s home. They had some corn to give us and some peaches. I thought you all might enjoy seeing some pictures we took. As you can see, I think fall is coming on us pretty fast. Some of the trees are already losing their leaves. Our temperatures this morning was 55 degrees. Our morning temps have been in the 50’s for about a week now. So much nicer sleeping weather. Anyway we got about 2 bushel of corn and almost a bushel of peaches. We will be busy today working all that up. Grace is my helper when it comes to shucking corn. She loves it. Julie will be inside doing other work while Grace and I shuck. Then I will let Julie help with the blanching while Grace has other chores.

Also, a couple who go to our church told us we could come and pick plums from their tree. This is exciting for us. We have never known anyone who had a plum tree. We want to make jelly and I was thinking about trying plum juice. I wonder how that would taste? I guess we’ll find out. We probably won’t get to go pick them until later in the week. I let you all know how it turns out.

This is a picture of some of the trees in the Pastor’s orchard. If you look close, you can see the ladder at the tree we picked peaches from. I will show you all a few more pictures next time. Well, we better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

August 16, 2011 8

More Space

Saturday we got the chickens more space in their lot. They really seem to enjoy having more room. We put the additional 5 hens in with our hens. It will take them a while to get used to being in there. You see the coup at the far side of the lot. That is what they have been in since they were bought by the man who gave them to us. They don’t really understand the concept of being able to run about. When we turn them all out in the evening, those 5 don’t really know to go outside. I’m sure they will figure it out pretty soon though. The small coup you see in the front is just for emergency use. In case we need to separate a hen from the rest of them for a short time.

Yesterday, we made salsa. We ended up with 16 pts. The Horn’s came over for a while in the evening. We ate supper, talked, picked a few blackberries and talked some more. It seemed like it had been a long time since they had come over. We had a really nice evening and even got a little rain. God is good! Our temperatures have definitely been cooler this week. This morning it was 60 degrees when we got up. There is a slight feel of fall in the air. Humidity is not near as bad. That always makes it seem cooler.

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

August 11, 2011 5

Our First Egg

Very exciting news here today. We got our first egg! I guess maybe we need to get out more, if just getting an egg gets us this excited. But we think it is beautiful.

Well, we finally got the pink apples worked up today. This is what they looked like when we cut them up.

They are so pretty. Remember last year, we purchased the steam juicer and the Roma sauce maker. They have been so helpful already this year. We just quartered the apples, no peeling necessary. Put them in the steam juicer and let them cook.

This is what the juice looks like. Such a beautiful color. We got 5 pts of juice. The juice is concentrated. For every pint you get a quart of juice.

Then after the apples cooked in the steam juicer we ran them through the sauce maker. We got 6 pts of applesauce. Thanks so much, Donna, for sharing these with us. We are working on peaches now. They are canning as I type. We saved the peelings from the peaches. We are going to put them in the steam juicer and make juice from them. I like the fact that there is hardly any waste.

Remember how I said last weekend was unusually cool here. Well, I can hardly remember that now. It has been HOT all week. I know not as hot as many of you but still hot. Temperatures have been in the 90’s outside and about that hot inside our house. I am so thankful to a blogger friend who gave me the idea of using a propane unit to do our canning on. We put it on the front porch and it makes such a difference keeping the house a little cooler. Most of the heat is out there not in the kitchen.

Well, we better get busy doing some cleanup. Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 21, 2011 7

Hummingbirds

The hummingbirds are really enjoying the feeders. We have this feeder at the old building and another one at the green swing. I think hummers are so much fun to watch.

Today, Hubby and I decided to put an outside faucet on the side of the new room. When we built the new room we had to take the old outside faucet off. Well, plumbing never seems to go as you think it will. We run the pipe and got everything connected, turned the water back on and amazingly, no leaks. Then we go outside, turn the faucet on and amazingly, no leaks. Well, of course, we are patting ourselves on the back now thinking wow, that was easy. Hubby turns the outside faucet off and guess what-it won’t turn off. It was a brand new faucet so we’re not sure what was wrong with it. Of course, we have no cut off valve in our collection of plumbing supplies so we have to shut the water off again, drive 30 minutes to the local hardware, get a cut off valve and a new outside faucet. When we get home, he put the cut off valve on so we could turn the water back on. He had to go look at a job possibility so the other faucet will have to wait. He will have to take the one that doesn’t work back out of the wall so he can put the other one in. Hopefully this one will work.

Well, that’s our day. Temperatures here today have been wonderful. Low 80’s. It is now almost 6:00 p.m. and the temperature is 75 degrees with a great breeze. Thank you, Lord. Tomorrow we will be going down to Jessica’s. She has a doctors appointment. We will be watching the boys and then going over to David’s mom’s to pick some apples. Remember last year, she gave us those pink apples. Well, they are ready to pick. They make such pretty applesauce.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 14, 2011 5

Ducks and Geese

The ducks and the geese were in the yard together this morning. Look how much they have grown. The mama duck has 5 babies that have survived. One goose is missing. We are hoping it is not mama or papa. From what I can understand they mate for life. If something has happened to one of them it would mean no more babies, which would be very sad.

Our VBS has been a lot of fun so far. 2 more nights to go. Thursday night is family night. We went with Hubby yesterday. He had a little repair job at this house on Claytor Lake. We worked on school while he did the job. Then we went down to the lake for a picnic. It was a nice day. I, of course, forgot the camera so no beautiful lake pictures.

Today is a beautiful day here in Floyd. Temperature is in the lower 70’s as of now. The sun is shining and we have a slight breeze. Very nice. We are hoping for nice temperatures this weekend as Dave, Jess, and the boys are coming up. We hope to go into town on Saturday night and watch the fireworks.

I have clothes ready for the line so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 29, 2011 4

Our Latest Find

Here’s a picture of our latest yard sale find. Saturday we went down to Jessica’s to celebrate Sam’s first birthday. Happy birthday, baby boy. We ended up not getting to stay for the party as Grace was not feeling well. When we got down there, though, one of her neighbors was having a yard sale. We walked over with Dave to check it out and found these books. I could not believe it when she told me the price. $5.00! Yeah, I was one happy mama. 10 childrens classics. I love old books.

Yesterday was my beautiful Julie’s 13th birthday. Happy birthday my darling girl. After church we went out to eat and then went to the movies. We watched Kung Fu Panda 2. Going to the movies is still a big treat for us. We don’t do it very often because we want it to remain special and because there are very few good movies to go see. Anyway we had a fun but busy weekend.

We got a little rain last night. Hopefully enough to get the garden growing. Sunshine today with comfortable temperatures. Saturday morning we were down in the 40’s but I think that will be the last of the cooler mornings. Well, I have clothes to hang out and school to do. Enjoy your day and God bless.

June 6, 2011 6

Home School

How much more fun is school when you can sit outside under a big shady tree and watch the kittens play? We have had hot temperatures here for the last few days. Not as hot as it is at Jessica’s but hot for us, anyway. I went out early this morning in the garden to work. Hoping to get it finished before it got too hot. I left Julie and Grace inside doing dishes and other inside chores. I much gather work outside than in, even if it is hot. Anyway, I got the garden finished weeding, replanted some tomato plants, planted some beans and some corn. Everything is in the ground now so we’ll see how it does.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing how big the baby geese are. They are almost as big as their parents. Geese are definitely good parents. They are very watchful and protective-always together.

We have piano practice this afternoon so I better get busy. We have another load of clothes to put on the line before we leave and a folded basket to put away. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 31, 2011 5

Mr. Frog

Check out the size of this frog. He is huge! He was soaking up the sun yesterday afternoon in front of our car when we were leaving for piano practice. We, of course, could not resist taking a picture of him.

Yesterday was a nice day. Temperatures were in the lower 70’s with sunshine. My plants looks (maybe) just a little better but I do not think they will make it. The tomatoes look strong but the cucumbers look the worst. The squash may be okay-not sure yet. Lesson well learned. I suppose it was too hot when I transplanted them. Maybe if we had waited until the sun went down to transplant them, it would have made a difference. Not sure.

We had a nice visit with the Horn’s yesterday. We ate pizza and a strawberry crisp she had made from her fresh strawberries. It was delicious. We walked around her yard looking at all her flowers that were up. Her chicks and ducks. Everything. I love doing that. Just walking around with her looking and talking. I am so thankful she is my friend.

We hope to finish science this weekend. We are on our last definitions. Today looks to be nice. The sun is shining. The garden is still too wet to work in but we have plenty of other things to do. Enjoy your day and God bless.

May 24, 2011 4

Chicks

Our baby chicks are now 3 weeks old. It kinda amazes me we have only had them 2 weeks. Seems much longer somehow. The red ones are a week older than the white ones but for simplicity’s sake we put them all at the same age.

We had some rain last night, with wind (of course) and it is still overcast today. I am hoping for some sun but we’ll see. Temperature is nice though, 56 degrees. I was hoping to get some of the earlier veggies planted in the garden but it is too wet. Maybe I am just getting in too much of a hurry. Several years ago, when we first moved to Floyd, we had to replant all our garden. About the last week of May, temperatures dropped to the teens for 5 nights in a row. Everything froze, even through our buckets that we had used to cover our plants. The seed potatoes froze in the ground. So needless to say after that I try to not plant too early. However, I can plant peas, lettuce, onions and cabbage now (as soon as the garden dries up enough).

Well, time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 12, 2011 2

Spirea Bush

Our spirea bush is also in full bloom. I love spring!

Yesterday, my Grace did not feel well. She felt worse as the day progressed. I finally ended up taking her to Urgent Care late yesterday evening. She has strep throat. Not good. We are praying for a speedy recovery and that the rest of us do not get it.

On now to more pleasant things. We have lots of sunshine today and the forecast is for warmer temperatures. Yesterday was a mix of rain, snow, and wind. It was chilly all day. We are looking forward to warmer temperatures the rest of the week. Last nights menu was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls. Grace, however, did not eat very much as her throat was hurting.

I plan on only doing half school today. Sickness and school do not go well together. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

April 6, 2011 5